They will always be there for us

There has been a lot going on this week.

Last Monday, we had this crazy cool activity with a bunch of college students. One member in our ward is an English teacher for a college. She gathered a bunch of students and had a cooking English class. She invited us as well. It was so much fun! We became pretty good friends and some said they wouldn't mind listening to our message!

Tuesday. We came home from district meeting and there were some awesome people we met on the street. One guy wasn't from here but he was telling us he believed God was real because of how complex people were. Not only that, but how every snow flake is different. Interesting man.

Later we did our gardening activity with W. She read the intro to the Book of Mormon and had lots of questions. We answered her questions and she said "well I'm looking forward to reading this book." We will see how it turns out. Later in the night everyone we wanted to visit was busy but almost all of them told us to come back on a different day. One of which is the K family. I'll talk about them on Sunday.

Wednesday. We started to watch conference right after lunch since we haven't seen it yet. The next 5 days we will do the same thing to watch it.

We met with a  member and she said she would help us with our Halloween party and hand out flyers. Later we met with Egawa and she is going great. After dinner we went to visit a less active we visited last month. Real quick, up until this point we have prayed many times, and truly the Spirit will guide you if you seek it. We felt we needed to visit this less active again even though she rejected us. We actually wanted to visit her daughter. She was 13 and it was weird but we wanted to invite her to our Halloween party. We were scared her mom would not let her come but it turns out only the girl was home and things were great! She was super excited and said she wanted to come.

Thursday was planning and going to sing happy birthday to a less active. She wasn't there so we went to another who wasn't home. So in turn ,we went back and she was still not there. As we were leaving we saw this old lady walking and I had a thought "that's her." So I stopped and started to talk to her. Well it was! She said she wanted to come to church but her husband is hantai and wont let her come. She wants, but again she cant. AHHAHAHHAHAH people.

A new high of 13 people came to eikaiwa. That's the most this area has seen in a while. Things are looking great!

Friday we needed to finish up some plans for less active work. The girl I mentioned above and another less active's daughter are the perfect ages to be befriended by the young women. This is in part why I want the U family to come to our ward instead of driving 2 hours to Okinawa. They have a 12 year old daughter that would help so much. Anyways, both girls are 13 or 12 so we talked about how the girls could reach out and befriend them. After dinner we went to find a different U. We couldn't find the house but on of her neighbors helped us find it. She moved like 15 years ago and the neighbor walked us to the new house. Really nice man.

Afterwards a member called and said their eye was swollen so they needed a blessing. We had a meeting with the Branch President near that house so on the way we swung by and were able to bless the woman. It was a great opportunity. I'm glad I was worthy to be able to do that.

That plan I talked about earlier, the branch was all go for it so we will soo put that into affect.

Saturday. Our less active ward mission leader had his birthday so we went and brought him a small cake. He wasn't home but later he sent a text saying thanks. We met this cool middle school student who accepted the Book of Mormon. I have found that a lot of teenagers want the gospel. Almost every single one who doesn't blow us off from the beginning has said they wanted to learn more and study Christ. But almost all of them can't meet again because of life. It's so rough. Hopefully they will come to the party.

Later this night we visited a family called the N. They were the family we gave the prayer challenge to the other week. There was something different with them. They did it for 2 days straight but fell off. The thing was, when they opened their home, there was a different feeling there. More happy and peaceful. The kids liked to pray. The mom seemed happier. There was more love there. Prayer helps families. We will see how they turn out. Later that night we met this really cool mom named N. She was not letting her belief of bukyo (Buddha) go away, but she listened. She was just saying that a lot of what we taught was the purpose of her religion as well. She said we can come back on Monday.

Sunday was spent trying to prep for the K family. They wanted an eikaiwa lesson and a short gospel lesson. We went... they weren't home! We were so sad so we started to write a note and they came home! Then we started to teach. We said we wanted to start off with a prayer and the little boy said something so innocent and profound. He said "why are we saying someone else's name? Is someone here?" It shocked me. I don't know why but it was a great chance to teach. God really is there and He is listening. I'll come back to that it a bit.

We taught and it was great! The boy said "come again next week" so the parents had to respect that. They are a great family and I have high hopes for them.

Monday. Crazy junkai. I got to go with Ho Choro and we had a blast. We went to this one area where apparently there were less actives just a stone throw away from each other. There about 7 or 8 of them there. One of the first had someone that was born in 1922. I said she would probably be dead. We got there and there were so many people at the house..... well.... she died a few days ago. Really awkward on my part but the less active said we could come a different time. The process happened again and again. A lot of these people haven't been visited in a long time. They were some of the first people baptized here. They were surprised we came.

We found this great 23 year old kid that listened and took a Book of Mormon. He was awesome and we will visit him again on Friday.

It was so great to be with Ho Choro. Everything we did just flowed together. I love that kid so much and it was so amazing to finally dendo with him. We have been waiting for this moment since the MTC.

After, they had to go home early, we went to visit N. Man that lesson was epic. But what was pure revelation was the prep and what happened before the lesson. Elder Bevan knew so well what to teach her. We got there and she wasn't there. We were so sad. We prayed to know what to do next. We were standing there. and I prayed 3 more times. I wasn't getting anything. I turned to Elder Bevan and said, "I don't know. I don't feel like we should anything around here." So we waited and were about to pray again when she pulled up. She got out and we talked. A great lesson. A really heart felt lesson. All about purifying hearts because she said that is what she likes the most. She said in the lesson, "we teach the same thing. When I read the scripture (Moroni 7:45) we teach the same thing." Then later she said "your faces are glowing and I can see that your hearts are pure" We said to that "it is because of the message. We promise you if you apply this message to your life, you will receive this too." A little while later the husband came out and yelled at us to leave because it was late, but she told us to come again and wanted to learn more.

On the way back last night Elder Bevan was hit by a car. Complete change of story, yeah I know.  But the lady didn't see him. He is okay but his bike needs new tires because they are warped. She was freaking out but Elder Bevan was so loving. She said "you people are good people." I said "to show we have no bad feelings, we want you to come to our Halloween party!" She accepted and said she would come to our party. Who knows? Maybe she needed to hit Elder Bevan to be introduced to the gospel?

Lastly I had a really cool experience last night while praying. There is a picture of Christ on the wall and I have seen it many times and know it is there. When I was praying it was dark and I looked up at the picture. I couldn't see it but I knew it was there. The same thing can be applied in our lives. We can see Christ and God's hand in our lives when things are lit up and you can see well. But when things go dark and you feel alone, you have a hard time seeing them. Like the boy from the K family, we can't see them, but you can know they are there. I promise they will always be there for us. Even if we can't see them.